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Tsunami-hit women of Tamil Nadu
sell kidneys to make a living
BY A CORRESPONDENT
January 16, 2007
In a horrible post-tsunami
aftermath, several fisherwomen of
Tamil Nadu, stricken by abject
poverty, have sold their kidneys to
make a living.
The Tamil Nadu Government has ordered
an investigation into the entire
incident.
These starving women were offered up
to Rs 1 lakh for their kidneys by the
organ brokers who took them to far-off
places like Madurai for the
kidney-removing surgery, official
sources in Chennai, capital of Tamil
Nadu, said.
Sometimes the donors were not paid
even half the promised amount. And,
many women ended up being perennially
ill because of not taking proper
post-surgery care.
After several such incidents came to
light, the Tamil Nadu Government
ordered an investigation into the
whole matter by M S Sangeetha, Revenue
Divisional Officer (RDO) of Ponnery.
Some donors told Sangeetha that they
had sold their kidneys since they had
no other means of survival.
Kalpana, aged 18 and mother of two
children, was forced to sell her
kidney as it was her only option to
save her marriage after her husband
stopped going to sea and took to
drinking after the giant waves
battered the coast on December 26,
2004.
What is worse for her, Kalpana’s
husband took away the entire Rs 75,000
she got in return for her kidney and
then abandoned her in a temporary
shelter for tsunami victims at Tsunami
Nagar in Eranavur.
Saroja, Kalpana’s mother, says: “It is
quite common among our menfolk to get
remarried after driving their wives
out.”
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